You are my sunshine.....right?

So, Tommy has been pretty much the perfect kid. Very calm, mild mannered, giggly. Until lately. He seems to have.....found his voice, I guess you would say. This is new to me (obviously, since it's my first kid) and I don't know how to handle it. I love, LOVE this kid but he has figured out this new angry side of him that I DO NOT LIKE.

This is his new thing.....he shrieks. Not like, a cute little "awww, what a funny noise" shriek, but like an ear curdling shriek that makes you wonder where the heck your sweet little baby went. And to top that off, when he's tired of waiting on you to do something or he gets set down when he doesn't want to be, he stiffens his body and stamps his foot down (if he was standing, he would be full on stomping) and screams. What?!?! Where did this come from??????

The worst fit was when one night, he would NOT go to sleep. I could tell he was exhausted and right when he was on the verge of sweet zzzzzs, he would throw him self around to wake back up again. He cried and he cried and he cried. We went around and around for 45 minutes. Now, we have tried the cry it out method (where instead of feeding them when they wake up at night, you let them cry until eventually they stop waking up) and it is NOT for me. But when he's just plain being a brat and crying not because something's wrong but just because he can, I have no problem letting him cry. I had tried singing "You are my Sunshine" to him because it usually calms him right down, but it wasn't working that night. This is not to say it doesn't hurt my heart or make ME want to cry with frustration, but I definitely do not want him thinking he can throw a fit and get what he wants. So I layed down in bed, put him in his pack-n-play beside the bed and ignored him (for the most part). Every time I looked at him, he was biting the edge of his bed and staring at me like, "When the heck are you going to help me?"

Was it sad? Yes. Was it hard? Yes. Has it made him stop throwing fits? No. But it's one step at a time. My problem is, how do you discipline a 6 month old?! I mean, when he screams out of anger, what do you do? I get my "sharp tone of voice" going on, but does he really get that yet?  Anyone have any advice?

He finally fell asleep about an hour later and I have never been happier in my life. He was finally peaceful and so was I. For the most part, he's still my sweet, happy, calm baby boy. This fit throwing seems to mostly happen in the evening when he's sleepy, but that doesn't make it okay. We're working on it one day at a time, but parenting is SO hard!!!!!!!! And then I see this.........

......and I know I would go through a million more screaming and stomping fits to keep this kid in my life.